Teen dead after rollover near Ronan
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SLOAN’S BRIDGE — A 17-year-old boy is dead and his aunt in critical condition after a one-vehicle rollover Monday morning near Sloan’s Bridge on Little Bitterroot Road, a gravel road connecting Ronan with Hot Springs.
The accident happened around 7:15 a.m. just inside Sanders County about 15 miles west of Ronan, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Terry Rosenbaum said. The teenager and his 40-year-old aunt were riding with the boy’s 22-year-old brother, the driver, in a 2001 Dodge Durango when the driver lost control of the vehicle, which veered off the right side of the gravel road and rolled four times.
“Everybody was pitched from the vehicle,” Rosenbaum said, adding that none of the three was wearing a seatbelt.
The woman, who landed near the wrecked sport utility vehicle, was “in excruciating pain” when help arrived, and the driver, although not seriously injured, didn’t know where he landed when he was ejected.
“All he remembers is waking up and looking for his brother,” Rosenbaum said.
The 17-year-old brother was thrown into an embankment and slid about 73 feet down a cliff toward the Flathead River. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman lives in Hot Springs, and the brothers were from Camas Prairie, Rosenbaum said.
“They were heading home,” he said.
While he’s still investigating the crash, Rosenbaum said alcohol and speed were both factors. The section of Little Bitterroot Road where the accident happened is “pretty much a straight stretch,” he added, and “everybody in the car was drinking.”
The driver was treated for minor injuries at St. Luke Community Hospital in Ronan, and his aunt was taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where she remained in intensive care Tuesday morning in “very, very critical condition,” Rosenbaum said.
A passer-by called in the accident about 15 minutes after it happened, Rosenbaum said. Sanders County emergency personnel called for mutual aid from the Ronan Volunteer Fire Department, and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Lake County Search and Rescue also responded.
